Remember Aesop’s Fable, The Tortoise and The Hare?
The race with the outcome that everyone considers a done deal even before it begins? Though the Hare was naturally faster than the slow but steady Tortoise, he relied so much on his innate abilities to deliver, that he took a nap and lost the race to the committed and diligent Tortoise.
Sales Progression needs daily steady progress. It’s not a last-minute sprint to the finish line only to find you have so much ground to make-up, you won’t make it in time! Getting a sale from reservation to exchange of contracts and then beyond to a safe legal completion is a journey best taken in regular bite-sized chunks. Most of our industry sets a 28-day target for exchanges, but not everyone manages to achieve it. We believe that reducing days to exchange lies in three key factors:
- Customer education and buy-in
- Great external partnerships with IFA’s, solicitors and agents
- Daily Sales Progression activity on all sales
Let’s look at that third element in greater detail…
Every Sales Manager dreams of going into the weekly build/sales meeting, fully prepared, deep in the detail and with no bad news and nasty surprises to deliver. We completely understand this aspiration!
There is an old business mantra…
What gets measured, gets done
We are passionate at ellare to find ways of helping you to nurture a culture of daily sales progression activity in your team. By cultivating a team who have daily sales progression activity built into their sales DNA, you are halfway to achieving that dream and can look forward to an improved reputation for being in control, within your team, among your colleagues and across the senior team.
One of the primary methods of keeping your finger on the pulse of all current sales in hand is by using a centrally visible real-time tracker. A place where you can see every update across all your developments, wherever you are in the patch, take time out each day to monitor progress towards expected milestones, challenge missed dates early and cultivate an expectation in your team for them to remain at the helm in getting the sale quickly back on track.
Encourage your team to set automated tasks within your CRM to check on key stages in the sale so nothing is able to fall through the net. Monitor overdue tasks daily and follow-up when it is clear that progress is slipping. Particularly on 5-day developments with no part-time Sales Consultant available to take over. Otherwise, you can be in the position where no sales progression activity happens between Monday and Thursday and a vital exchange can slip a week. What measures can you put in place to overcome this?
Complicated chains need careful management.
We focus on coaching our ellare Sales Consultant community to replicate all sales progression activity down through the chain and back up again! Do not assume the other agents are being as diligent and driven.
What red flags do you want your team to recognise and raise if barriers to exchange occur further down the chain?
When things do go wrong in a sale, consider using it as a coaching opportunity in the wider team, so they become more attuned to potential and common problems. It won’t be long before they’ve seen it all and are ready with a creative solution to put to the other parties.
Sales made with an enabler such as Part Exchange or Help to Buy need particular attention.
The Part Exchange scheme is designed to make the sale simple but often last-minute barriers to exchange occur due to outstanding items related to the purchase of the customer’s home. Help your team be clear about the extra things to check, so that both sale and purchase progress smoothly in tandem.
Consider sending your team an email each Friday afternoon
The email could outline all the exchanges you are expecting across your patch the following week. Remind them to take time over the weekend to prepare an action plan to make swift progress on Monday – giving all your external partners, good time to overcome any outstanding matters.
And the moral of the story is… don’t get caught napping like the hare. Steady progress wins the race!